Status: 07/14/2021 4:31 a.m.
Train travel instead of cheap flights – for the sake of the climate: a big topic two months before the general election. But can that work? And can Germany learn from other countries?
At the beginning of July, Lufthansa canceled its short-haul flight between Nuremberg and Munich, which was controversial in terms of climate policy. In keeping with the campaign theme “Train instead of flight”? Not quite: Lufthansa uses an express bus – in the absence of a fast train connection at Munich Airport. Who does not remember Edmund Stoiber’s burst Transrapid dreams? To this day only the S-Bahn stops here. The climate policy goal of replacing all domestic flights with train journeys is now a long way off. Because a third of the passengers who fly within Germany do so in order to transfer to a connecting flight – mostly from Frankfurt or Munich. People are comfortable, especially with a lot of luggage and a long journey ahead of them. Domestic flights remain attractive without good, fast rail alternatives. This also applies to purely domestic flights.
Spain relies on cheap train tickets
In many EU countries there is a debate about how best to reduce short-haul flights – this is also the case in Spain. But while politicians are still discussing this, the economy has already created incentives: Since the end of June, the Spanish railway RENFE has been offering bargain train rides with its high-speed train AVLO: Madrid-Barcelona are available from seven euros. The French competing express train OUIGO has even been on the rails with competitive prices like this for a long time. Both providers speak of a run on the offers. Francisco Prats Herrero, the RENFE area manager Madrid / Barcelona, speaks of “start occupancy rates of 100 percent and very positive forecasts”. He advertises that the railways have the lowest CO2 emissions in a comparison of the modes of transport: “The product should reduce environmental damage and divert demand to the railroad.”
The offer attracts price-conscious customers like Julieta Staschewski Martínez from the flight to the train: “If it had been cheaper, I would have flown even if the train was more comfortable. In the end, people my age mainly orientate themselves on the price. A good incentive, the Take the train, “says the 21-year-old student. She is now planning more frequent weekend short trips by train: “You arrive in the center and the bottom line is faster than by plane. In addition, the ticket is cheaper than going out for a drink.” The train ride takes two hours and 45 minutes, a flight one and a half hours plus check-in time. The train is also an alternative for customers for whom the price is less important and the time factor is more important.
France bans domestic flights
France is going a different way. Flights are banned here if a TGV can cover the same route in two and a half hours, for example from Paris to Lyon or Bordeaux. Feeder flights are still allowed, criticized ARDAviation expert Michael Immel: “We still see all the transfer traffic. The French model is a sham that has sold well.”
This sham package is nevertheless an impetus for some other EU countries such as Germany to also discuss bans on short-haul flights.
Rail instead of nozzle – is that possible in Germany?
Are the concepts of France and Spain a suitable model for Germany? Rail and aviation experts are skeptical. France, for example, has a purely high-speed network: the TGV can travel much faster than the ICE, which shares the route with freight and slow-moving trains. This makes switching from flight to train easier, as does the settlement structure: “France has only a dozen large cities, all of which have direct high-speed connections to Paris. Germany has many more large cities, and not all of them are covered by high-speed traffic,” explains rail expert Christian Bottger. He concludes that there is a lack of sufficiently fast and attractive rail connections for a complete ban on domestic flights. In addition, it could even damage the climate, warns ARDAviation expert Immel with a view to the transfer traffic: “We are only shifting traffic. Passengers want to be comfortable. Instead of taking a train, they choose a flight via Istanbul or Amsterdam to Asia.” Foreign airlines benefit from this, but not the climate.
And turn to the train ticket prices like in Spain? “The railway offers cheap tickets when it has free capacity, of course not on Friday afternoons. This is the only way it can earn money in the mix. Even more savings prices would not be economical,” says railway expert Böttger. Instead, he advises more equal treatment of the sectors: “Politicians should think about the unequal competitive conditions and address the various, indirect and hidden subsidies for air traffic. This could shift about half of air traffic within five years, which is now still economically Reasons. ” Because there are some flight routes that could already be replaced with a fast rail connection.
The expansion of the route must be accelerated
The problem is the other half, which is not so easy to relocate because of the lack of capacity and speed of the rail lines. They are already overloaded between big cities. The past has shown that if an attractive train connection is created, flights will be less used or even discontinued, such as Hamburg-Berlin or Cologne-Frankfurt. But they only become obsolete when this is the case everywhere. But faster routes would have to be built for this, says Böttger: “There are a number of routes that have been planned for 30 years and wherever the money was not available. If these are built now, more traffic can be on the rails relocate. ”
But building new, faster routes is not quick. This is shown, for example, by the recently started expansion of the so-called Dresden railway line. It should shorten the journey to Berlin Airport. But it took 26 years for the railway to start construction. Bad omens for a future ICE connection at Munich Airport and for an early end to German short-haul flights. But there is also good news: after decades of dismantling, the railway is now expanding in many places and increasingly offering faster connections. In this way, the train will gradually compete with the flight.